There’s a magnificent cabinet clock in the collection of the Walters Art Museum. Until recently, little was known about how the clock and musical mechanism functioned. What type of timepiece was inside? Did it have an alarm or chime? Who made it and when?

Within the Walters Art Museum’s collection of timepieces, clocks, and watches there’s a clock that is said to have belonged to the dowager empress of Russia, Maria Feodorovna. Agate panels framed by elaborate rococo cage-work form the body of the clock, which contains a complex musical mechanism.

Conservation staff treated the clock to reduce silver tarnish and reattach some loose elements. This provided an opportunity to investigate the object further. Though it was known that the clock was assembled in a London workshop owned by James Cox, little was known about the timepiece and musical mechanism inside. What type of timepiece is it? What tune does the musical mechanism play? Who made them and when?

Visit the Walters Art Museum and try out the new Mobile Guide to discover the stories behind the collection.

Did you know that William T. Walters bought most of his art with money he made from a whiskey business? Or that William’s wife, Sadie, became the toast of high society by introducing the waffle iron? Visit the Walters Art Museum and try out the new Mobile Guide to discover the stories behind the collection. Through photographs, letters and historic material from the museum’s archives, get to know members of the Walters family—father William, wife Ellen, son Henry and their daughter Jennie. Read stories created around the themes of family, food, travel and collecting, while looking at important works of art in the galleries. The stories are modern-day reinterpretations, based on the lives of the Walters family, drawn from the museum’s archival records. Over time, the Mobile Guide will grow as new objects and stories are added.

Rich in natural resources and famed for its artistic traditions, Yemen is now a center of international concern. Since conflicts erupted in March 2015, nearly 3,000 civilians have died, and Yemen’s cultural heritage has been irreparably damaged. Under the sponsorship of the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), museums around the world are highlighting Yemeni heritage.

Historians of the Greek and Roman world named ancient South Arabia, centered in present-day Yemen, Arabia Felix (“Happy Arabia”). They praised South Arabia’s fertile lands, which yielded grains, vegetables, fruits, and other commodities that were exported throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Between 1000 BC and the 6th century AD, South Arabian kingdoms prospered through a sophisticated economy based on long-distance trade. One such kingdom was Saba, the land of the Queen of Sheba, who, according to biblical traditions, traveled to Jerusalem to present King Solomon (10th century BC) with gold, precious stones, incense and other goods carried on Arabian camels.

Rich in natural resources and famed for its artistic traditions, Yemen is now a center of international concern. Since conflicts erupted in March 2015, nearly 3,000 civilians have died, and Yemen’s cultural heritage has been irreparably damaged. Under the sponsorship of the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), museums around the world are highlighting Yemeni heritage for Yemeni Heritage Week (April 24-30, 2016). Follow #Unite4Heritage on social media to see what partner museums are doing to raise international awareness on the great richness of Yemen’s culture and history.

A fifteenth-century Flemish casket with scenes from romances was recently brought to the conservation lab to be evaluated for a possible loan to another museum. It is a rare example of painted and gilded locking caskets with secular imagery. Purchased from the Parisian bookbinder and antiques dealer Leon Gruel by Henry Walters, only a handful of similar examples are known.

This casket is made of wood covered with leather that has been cut to create images and designs. Iron straps surround the exterior, and there is a large lock on the front, suggesting the casket was intended to hold objects of great value. When it arrived in the lab, the casket was locked. There is no key and no record of it ever being opened at the museum.

Graphic designer Sara Shahabi was commissioned by the Walters to create the title wall for Pearls on a String: Artists, Patrons, and Poets at the Great Islamic Courts. We talked to Sara about how the title wall came to be, from concept to execution.

Sara Shahabi’s background in exploring experimental English and Farsi typography made her a perfect fit for executing the evocative title wall that greets visitors at the start of Pearls on a String. Her installation continues a theme in the exhibition that considers how artists, patrons, and poets form a constellation of relationships. In Sara’s work we see a contemporary expression of that theme, to compliment works from the Islamic courts of the sixteenth- and eighteenth-centuries. We talked to Sara about how the title wall came to be, from concept to execution.

Julie Lauffenburger, Director of Conservation and Technical Research shares her passion for conservation, curating the Gold in the Ancient Americas exhibition and her journey to the Walters Art Museum.

Why are you so passionate about preserving art?

I am a bit of a history nerd. Just ask my children—always a historic site wrapped into a family vacation! Preserving art to me is about preserving the legacy of human creativity: what makes us human and what is universal about all of us wherever we live. I have always been fascinated by material culture and have always wanted to travel and see the world; preserving art ensures that material culture from around the world will be there for future generations to discover. It makes you feel like you are a part of something bigger.